


Forgiveness 5+1 -- Second Time: Age 12

by lanapanda



Series: Kiss and Make Up [2]
Category: Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, inadvertent kissing, kiss and make up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-14
Updated: 2013-01-14
Packaged: 2017-11-25 11:58:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/638678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanapanda/pseuds/lanapanda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Second out of Five times Tony and Bruce kissed and made up (and the one time they didn’t). Set in a random AU where the two first met at age 6.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forgiveness 5+1 -- Second Time: Age 12

“Aw, come on, Tony. I said I was sorry.” Bruce leaned in the doorway to Tony’s workshop and watched the other young man solder components onto a circuit board. While other kids had tree houses or clubhouses growing up, he and Tony had the workshop. Bruce couldn’t count the number of times he’d leaned there in the doorway, watching Tony work on this project or that project, though it was more common that they’d be working side-by-side.  
  
“Don’t worry about it,” Tony shrugged a shoulder and kept soldering. He didn’t even look up as he added, “It was a stupid idea, anyway.”  
  
If there were an Olympic medal for sulking, Tony Stark would win it hands down, no questions asked and no competition would even come close, Bruce thought. But he didn’t blame Tony, not really. Dealing with his dad had taught him that. The same way dealing with Bruce’s dad had taught Bruce to wear long sleeves even in summer, just in case. “Tony... I didn’t say it was a stupid idea.”  
  
“No, you didn’t,” Tony replied. “What you did was snort, which is Bruce Banner speak for ‘that is _such_ a dumb idea that I won’t even dignify it with my usual level of brutal sarcasm’.” Tony put the soldering iron down and ran a hand through his hair.  
  
Next would come the pacing. Bruce had seen it a hundred times or more. Tony was animated even on his worst days, and when he was upset he couldn’t keep still at all. He would walk the entire length of the workshop, weave his way around benches and tables, rummage through their supply shelves without looking for anything in particular -- and still nothing would actually calm him down other than working his way through whatever had upset him in the first place.  
  
“I thought you were kidding, that’s all,” Bruce tried to explain. It wasn’t that he didn’t love Tony’s ideas. His ideas were great, by and large. Just every so often... they didn’t seem to be grounded in any kind of reality that Bruce could fathom. But even so, Bruce couldn’t stand the thought that he’d hurt his best friend’s feelings. So he tried to apologize again, this time reaching out a hand as Tony went past on his usual perimeter sweep of frustration. “I didn’t mean to make you upset.”  
  
“I’m not upset,” Tony said and forced a smile even though he knew it wouldn’t convince Bruce. His best friend had always been able to tell when he was just pretending to be happy versus when he really was.  
  
“You are definitely upset,” Bruce replied and tugged Tony a little closer. Six years was a long time to know a person, when you were twelve. Bruce felt like he’d known Tony all his life, and even though things were far from perfect in either of their home lives, they’d always had each other to rely on. Best friends didn’t really cover it, not entirely. Not brothers, either. Maybe it had been like that at first, but now that they were older, there was an occasional frisson of awareness between them that kept things... interesting. “Tell me the rest of your idea, please? I promise I will not snort. I will stand right here and listen, start to finish.”  
  
Tony eyed Bruce skeptically, but didn’t pull away. Out of everyone in his life, Bruce was the only one that kept his word consistently. That meant that he’d at least try not to snort in derision again, even if he was feeling derisive. “... okay. What I meant when I said we build up a catalogue now is just that. We can get our experiments peer reviewed and published if we write up the papers formally. We could have a body of work to stand on before we ever have to write a thesis. We could skip all that and get into _real_ work that actually matters and not have to deal with the bullshit they’re going to try to shovel on us in university.”  
  
“Alright. And how to do two twelve-year-olds get someone to peer review their paper? Especially how do we do it when I can’t have my name in public if we get it published?” Bruce ran a hand through Tony’s hair preemptively to stop the stress reaction that he knew was coming. Tony didn’t like thinking about Brian Banner anymore than Bruce did, but they had to be careful. Bruce’s father was under a restraining order, but it wasn’t a cure-all and more than once Bruce had been forced to miss school after a run-in with Brian in a public place.  
  
“Pseudonym,” Tony replied. He stood still while Bruce petted his hair, and his next smile was a little more genuine, “Anton Canterbury Krebs sounds like a very dignified name, don’t you think?”  
  
Bruce was surprised into laughing. “Okay. Just not Bryant Tenebrous Crank or anything like that. So, publishing under a pseudonym. How do we get it reviewed in the first place?”  
  
“Our fellowship this summer. We’ll have access to a lot of professors. We just need to find a sympathetic one,” Tony grinned at Bruce. “It’ll be simple. I’ll wow them with my engineering and charm, you add in some wit and physics and we’re in.”     
  
“I’m not sure I can do a fellowship this year, Tony. Last year they had so many reporters...”  
  
“No press this time. I double and triple-checked before I got the forms. It’s all private and it’s all academics based and no one is going to usurp it for business stuff.”  
  
“Wow... is your dad going to really let you do that?” Bruce asked, his eyebrows raised in surprise. Howard Stark never missed an opportunity to show his son off to the press, when he wasn’t berating him in private.  
  
There had been a few times that Bruce had caught the tail end of one of Howard Stark’s rants at his son and only out of concern for Tony had he managed to keep his temper. Tony needed a friend who could be there. Not someone who would kick the crap out of his dad and then end up locked away in juvenile detention.  
  
“Don’t jinx it. My fellowships are the one thing I can still pick on my own,” Tony said with a smile and a shake of his head. He knew his dad wouldn’t be happy that there was no press this year, but he never made his dad happy anyway no matter what he did. Making sure Bruce felt safe was more important.  
  
Bruce smiled and gave Tony a hug. “Alright. Let’s get started.”  
  
“Really?” Tony’s eyes went round and a slow smile spread across his face as he leaned into the hug. He supposed it should have been odd, that physical affection. It wasn’t something they did in public. But they’d never quite broken the habit they’d developed years ago of hanging onto one another whenever things were stressful.    
  
“Really. I’m sorry I didn’t hear you out before jumping to conclusions,” Bruce said softly. He turned his head at the same moment that Tony glanced up and suddenly Bruce found himself kissing his best friend on the cheek.  
  
Tony turned an amazingly bright shade of red. “Okay...well... I forgive you. Let’s get back to work -- can’t waste time if we’re going to be published scientists by this fall.”


End file.
